Voters are being cautioned against donkey voting at tomorrow's federal election. PHOTO: pexels.com

Don't be a donkey, protest votes will still count in federal election

By LOIS MASKIELL With the trend of donkey voting on the rise this election, many Aussies will opt to avoid a fine by wasting their vote at the polls on Saturday. A donkey vote is when you number the candidates in the order they appear down or up the...

Many Australians are expected to vote informally tomorrow. PHOTO: Twitter

The AEC reported a range of deliberate and unintentional factors influence informal voting such as socioeconomic status, demographic, lack of political engagement or poor understanding of voting.

Voter Nina Harrap, 30, said she was aware of donkey voting but did not know they counted towards election results.

“If you go to the effort to fill out a donkey vote and know it's going to get counted, that’s ridiculous,” Ms Harrap said.

Different to the first-past-the-post system, the Australian preferential system means a political party may receive a majority of votes from your second, third or fourth preference on the ballot paper.

Voter Bryn Power, 26, said he was a strong supporter of preferential voting.

“I vote for a minor party at the top but ensure that my preferred major party ranks higher than my less preferred one,” he said.

“This is important because it sends a signal to the major parties that you’re dissatisfied and because parties get public funding for each vote they receive.”

The international relations student said the consequences of donkey votes were far worse than informal ones.

“If you vote for something which you don’t actually believe in, you’re sending the wrong signals to Canberra,” Mr Power said.

Another vote wasted. PHOTO: Instagram

Currently, independent candidates or parties which get at least four per cent of first preference votes receive an amount of public funding equal to their total votes multiplied by $2.756.

Youth enrolment is at its highest rate ever this election with 88.8 per cent of eligible 18 to 24 years olds enrolled.

But university student Jack Worthy, 31, is concerned not enough people understand how the Australian voting system works.

“Our voting system is one of the best in the world, but there needs to be more education in primary and especially secondary [voting],” Mr Worthy said.